In the light of today’s consideration of a draft resolution on Syria by the UN Security Council, we are compelled to express bewilderment and indignation at Paris and London’s ongoing propaganda campaign in connection with their alleged concern over the continued fighting in eastern Aleppo, the safety of civilians and the delivery of emergency humanitarian aid.

Our “concerned” French and British colleagues surely know that Aleppo residents are already receiving such aid – not just on paper but in fact – from Russia, through the Defence Ministry, the Hmeymim Centre for Reconciliation of the Opposing Sides and the Russian Emergencies Ministry.

Increased calls from a number of Western capitals to stop the anti-terrorist operation in eastern Aleppo look more like a last, desperate attempt to exculpate and save backed by them terrorists and extremists who are headed for defeat, i.e. those who will stop at nothing to achieve their nefarious ends. It is they who continue to use civilians as human shields, and bombard and mine civilian infrastructure and humanitarian corridors.

On December 5, as a result of a direct hit by a terrorist mine at the emergency department of the Russian mobile military hospital in Aleppo, a Russian female medic was killed. Two other medical workers were seriously injured, and one of them later died. Local residents who had come to see a doctor were also injured.

However, Western capitals have not condemned this incident. We call on our partners to abandon their politicised approach and join the efforts to suppress the terrorist threat in Syria and search for a political solution to the Syrian crisis, instead of engaging in destructive emotional reactions through the media.